Charity
by Jazriot
Summary: Expanding on that vision of Lex's future from Hourglass. Clark/Lex slash.


Author's notes: My first finished attempt at Lex/Clark. Alas, no sex.  
  
  
Charity  
  
Gemini blue Porsche. The only blue left to be seen, sitting gracefully upon an island of bones girdled by a moat of crimson. Lex Luthor sat atop his convertible castle, wringing out his shirt so rivulets of blood ran down the windshield. He kind of liked the way the liquid tinted the nicks and spider web fissures in the glass. Red and blue always went together so well. He felt himself tearing up for some unsettling reason he couldn't wrap his mind around.  
  
The storm had cleared and the sun was massive and hazy, as if it were rolling towards the earth like a giant and brilliant bowling ball. Or the earth was rolling towards it. Whatever. The sky was dazzlingly pink, like Lex's blood coloured clothing. Like his cursed and flushed skin. Lex rubbed at his eyes with the back of his arm and blinked deliberately.   
"Must be the sun in my eyes," he murmured. Lex hadn't cried in years.   
  
Around him, only the silence of a worldwide catacomb and shimmering silvery skulls.  
  
"Well, Apocalypse? I have to say I'm disappointed. I expected a bit more biblical tragedy, a bit less cheesy Eighties film."  
  
The massacre didn't answer, but Lex nodded as if it had. Leaving his shirt and jacket to dry on the roof, he wormed down into the drivers seat. Otherwise known as the European styled leather throne to his empire of death. He ran his fingers over the steering wheel and shivered as a chill ran up his spine. A few minutes or years passed. Finally he slumped over into the dashboard and let the sobs wrack through his gnarled body and mind. "I didn't want this," he hissed into his tainted hands.   
  
"Yes, you did."  
  
"Clark?" and it came out far weaker than it should have.  
  
Clark leaned in the passenger side window and unlocked the door. He crawled in and his heroic figure somehow filled the whole car. No, the whole world. Clark was all Lex could see. The perfect angel that only he could recognize. It eased his mind a little. "Clark, look, you have to believe me ..."  
  
Clark's eyes closed and he shifted. "I don't."  
  
Lex's arms fell rigidly to his knees. His nails bit into his palms as his hands formed fists. "I didn't want to hurt you. I didn't want everyone you loved to die."  
  
Clark's eyes were disturbingly large, dubiously perceptive. "Of course you did, Lex. But you forgot one."  
  
Lex's brows furrowed, irritated. "What are you talking about? Everyone is dead."  
  
Clark's mouth formed the impossible words. "You."  
  
Lex laughed outright, a harrowing sound. "Liar."  
  
Clark smirked indulgently. "You think it's impossible because you don't know who you are. I can see through walls, Lex. I can see through your walls. I can see your heart beating right now."  
  
Lex swallowed, hard. Clark was studying him like an insect ... no, like a piece of art.  
  
"I have one?" he snarked and Clark smiled genuinely, flashing his imperfect white teeth.  
  
His perfect imperfect teeth.  
  
"Yeah, you do."  
  
And the thumping in Lex's veins grew and proved it.  
  
Clark rested his palm on Lex's chest. It was cold. Lex flinched.  
  
"And it beats only for me."  
  
Lex nearly moaned as a brainless burning heaved through him like a tsunami. "Perhaps."  
  
Their eyes met. "You can trust me, Lex. It's okay. I'm not human. I won't fuck it up."  
  
Within a second any tenderness held in Lex's face was replaced with rage. Lex swatted Clark's hand away. "Oh? So you're better than me, then? I see. I'm just a weak human. I do not need your pity, Clark!"  
  
Clark kicked a hole through the floor. "Christ, Lex! I didn't mean that. I am trying so hard ... you killed my parents and friends for god's sake!"  
  
Lex shrugged callously. "Terrorist action. Nothing I could do."  
  
"You provoked the attack!"  
  
"I don't need to listen to this," Lex sputtered darkly. "Get out of my car. Get out of my life."  
  
Another kick and the passenger door went screaming into the sky. "Fine! If that's what you want! I'll leave you all alone. You'll be all alone, Lex. You know what happens then? You stop existing."  
  
Lex didn't move. His expression was frozen. He was a rock. A great and powerful man. Unique. Feared. Respected. (By whom? There was no one left.)  
  
Never loved. Love was just a fairytale. (But . . .)  
  
But the only person left in the world, the only one who could make Lex alive . . . depended on that fairytale for survival.  
  
A tremble in Lex's lower lip. A quiver in his fingertips. A dampness in his eyes.  
  
"Clark. Don't leave me alone. I'm so sorry."   
  
Lex stumbled out of the car, hands reaching. And Clark did turn and unfold his arms.  
  
"Forgive me. Oh god. Forgive me. I love you."  
  
An embrace.  
  
Clark's rebellious hair tickled at Lex's ear. But there was a dampness there, too. Not blood or sweat. A bitter truth, pouring from Clark's eyes. The torment in those eyes: simply remarkable. Clark jerked hastily away.  
  
"You're lying again, Lex. You're ... you're just not capable of love."  
  
"Clark!"  
  
Lex fell to his knees in desperation, breaking bones other than his own. "I need you. More than anything. I need you. Stay with me."  
  
Clark let himself fall into Lex's arms, knocking them horizontal with the weight of the world on his shoulders. Lex liked the way the bones dug into his back, a stinging sort of pain worthy of the moment.  
  
"It's enough," Clark's voice was husky before he took Lex's lower lip into his mouth.  
  
Lex wondered at how luminous the world had suddenly become. Perhaps the sun was actually going to collide with them? Or maybe this counterfeit entity resembling love could light up the world like some trite rock concert anthem.  
  
Stranger things had happened.  
  
Lex squinted hard into the brilliance of the sun. "What the?" The curtains had been wickedly pulled open. He craned his head away from the light source and his shoulder popped painfully. "I am honestly going to kill - " he eyed the drained vodka gimlet still clutched in his hand and suspected it hadn't been his first. "Myself."  
  
"Do you make a habit of sleeping in until four, Lex?" queried a bemused voice.  
  
Lex looked around blearily until his eyes settled on Clark's face. "Do you make a habit of waking insomniac millionaires, Clark?"  
  
Clark smiled and it was more painfully blinding than the daylight. "I make an exception in your case."  
  
Lex slouched back into his chair and groaned good-naturedly. "I'm touched, really."  
  
Clark just smiled and sat down across from him. The boy was basking in the sunlight, sculpted like a Greek god coated in flannel. Which of course set Lex off into another lecture on Alexander the Great. Any chance to educate his favourite person on history or really, just any chance to have someone really want to listen to him.  
  
Lex liked to feel wanted.  
  
Maybe Lex even liked it enough to allow the person who needed him to be less than perfect. He was still a charitable man, after all. 


End file.
